Mourners hold hands and pray last October outside Salon Meritage in Seal Beach where the deadly shooting occurred.

The names of the more than 6000 boat people that died trying to escape Vietnam are memorialized in stones that surround the Boat People of Vietnam memorial at Westminster Memorial Park in Westminster.

A pair of women push baby strollers on the walkway of the Electric Avenue greenbelt in Seal Beach.

A man and his dog relax on the grass at Eisenhower Park in Seal Beach. The park is one possible site for some kind of permanent memorial for the victims of the Salon Meritage shooting.

Photos of Robert Guzman left, and his father, Joe Guzman, right, stand at the base of the memorial of those who died at 11:52 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1986, on flight 498, at the 25 year memorial Wednesday, at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden in Cerritos.

The area known as the Grassy Triangle right next to the Salon Meritage is one possible site for a memorial to the shooting victims.

Flowers and roses stand next to the names at the base of the memorial of those who died at 11:52 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1986, when two planes collided in the skies over Cerritos and plunged to the ground, at the 25 year memorial at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden in Cerritos.

A stone with a plaque on it marks one end of Eisenhower Park in Seal Beach, one possible site for the memorial for the victims of the Salon Meritage shooting.

The City of Seal Beach is looking to create some kind of permanent memorial for the victims of the Salon Meritage shootings.

This photo combo shows the eight people who were killed during the shooting at Salon Meritage in Seal Beach, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. On the top row, from left, are Michelle Fournier, Michele Fast, David Caouette and Christy Lynn Wilson. On bottom row, from left are Laura Lee Elody, Lucia Bernice Kondas, Victoria Ann Buzzo and Randy Lee Fannin.

Andy Zelinko stands in front of the completed Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial at Northwood Community Park in Irvine. It took eight years to realize the memorial that honors all members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan from around the country. A memorial of wooden crosses had been at this site.

Orange County has war memorials. The county also has monuments to veterans, police officers and firefighters.

But when it comes to honoring crime victims, that’s a rarity.

“No city has a blueprint for doing something like this,” said Tim Kelsey, Seal Beach community services supervisor.

Seal Beach is grappling with how — or even whether it should – memorialize the eight women and men shot to death in a beauty salon last October.

Cal State Fullerton may offer the closest parallel to the tragedy in Seal Beach.

In 1976, a university janitor killed seven people – at the time, Orange County’s worst massacre. In memory, the university created a modest seven-tree grove north of the library. A small iron plaque lists the names of the dead and says: “This living memorial is dedicated in remembrance of the victims and their families and the many other persons whose lives where touched by the tragedy of July 12, 1976.”

Most memorials across Orange County honor veterans, police officers and firefighters. They include the Vietnam War Memorial in Westminster and memorials to veterans, firefighters and police officers at the Santa Ana Civic Center Plaza

Some memorials start out as makeshift tributes.

In Irvine, shortly after the Iraq invasion began in 2003, one resident built wooden crosses and placed them at the Northwood Community Park. That attracted yellow ribbons, flags and teddy bears. In 2010, the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial became the nation’s first permanent memorial listing the names of American service members who died in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, according to its website.

Also in Irvine, what began as a temporary memorial of flowers and candles to Ashton Hunter Sweet, a 14-year-old killed in an accident, turned into a “permanent memory” of the local girl when a crepe myrtle tree was planted early last fall at the corner of Culver Drive and Irvine Boulevard, said city spokesman Craig Reem.

Not all the temporary memorials are welcomed by neighbors.

Along Live Oak Canyon Road in Trabuco Canyon, for example, a makeshift memorial three years ago for an 18-year-old who died in a car crash raised questions from some canyon residents about the appropriateness of such markers along a scenic narrow road.

Meanwhile, in some cities, including Seal Beach, residents can pay for a plaque on a bench honoring a loved one.

In Laguna Beach, a park bench on Mountain Road overlooking the Pacific Ocean is dedicated to “those who lost their lives and those who may lose their lives to AIDS.” The 2003 standard-issue bench and plaque is said to be the first permanent memorial in Orange County related to AIDS.

Other nearby monuments, outside of Orange County, include a sculpture garden in the Cerritos Civic Center in memory of the 82 people killed in the air and on the ground when two aircrafts collided over that city in 1986.

In Seal Beach, now the site of the county’s worst slaying, some would prefer to forget it, others would like to build a permanent memorial. The next step is Feb. 27, when the City Council is scheduled to receive conceptual designs and recommendations from a 12-member citizens’ committee.

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